Slump in ship orders rocking industry

Even though China's shipyards received a surge of orders in the first three quarters of 2013, a recovery is still far off, industry experts said.

Low prices and a preponderance of orders for low-value vessels are undermining the sector, they added.

New orders totaled 38.06 million dead weight tons, up about 147 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.